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Fudging

If you are an avid Bumfoozler you soon realize that you can simply reverse the whole puzzle board or rotate it 180 degrees (90, 180 and 270 degrees on the 5×5 grid of Level 3) and it will count as a new solution. When I thought of checking for this, I decided that the only person that you would be fudging would be yourself. So I suggest that you avoid doing it. Of course as you get hundreds solutions, you might inadvertently find such a solution. That’s ok because you’ve still had the fun and mental exercise of finding a solution. My 6 year old grandson discovered this and actually I was pretty proud of him to recognize that you could reflect or rotate the entire puzzle board and have it counted.

Another form of fudging would be to write a computer program to find all the solutions. If you decide to do that, then more power to you. It isn’t an easy task and you deserve credit for the hard work and thought process that you have to go through. You will find that it soon becomes very complex. Unless you also invent an iPad robot, you will still have to enter all the solutions in manually to have them counted.

2 thoughts on “Fudging”

Well, RATS!! I am on actually on level 6 and just read this paragraph on “Fudging”. Guess I am as smart as a 6 year old (I am in my 7th decade)!! I caught on to this “Fudging” idea early on and was cruising once I found a solution. Finding one solution was worth 4 successes! I suppose I should start over and “rack” my brain a little more. I was proud of myself for making it to level 6……now there is just this “empty” feeling…..like I cheated. Thanks a-lot!

Bum Guy’s wife doesn’t agree with him. She believes that all solutions should be equally as valid, so for the record, fudging is totally acceptable and you should be commended for making this discovery. As you get to higher levels, it becomes more difficult to fudge because you must re-orient one piece at a time. The puzzle was designed so that those who wanted to experience the higher levels earlier could do so and so that those who wanted to go back to a level to find as many solutions there as possible could also do so. Remember, you get additional points for finding more solutions at a level that you have already passed.